Providing a Sure Start

How Government Discovered Early Childhood

Paper $38.95ISBN: 9781847427298
Published
February 2012
For sale in North and South America only

Cloth $100.00ISBN: 9781847427304
Published
September 2011
For sale in North and South America only

This book tells the story of Sure Start, one of the flagship programmes of the last government. It tells how Sure Start was set up, the numerous changes it went through, and how it has changed the landscape of services for all young children in England. Offering insight into the key debates on services for young children, as well as how decisions are made in a highly political context, it will be of keen interest to policy academics, senior managers of public services and all those with a keen interest in developing services for young children.

Introduction Setting the scene for change A star is born, the birth of Sure Start What happened next Stroppy adolescence and then marriage Sure Start grows up: mainstreaming or death What have we learned, what have we achieved?

Review Quotes

Jane Waldfogel | Journal of Policy Analysis and Management

“In Providing a Sure Start, Naomi Eisenstadt, who directed the [titular] program for its first seven years, tells the story of this ambitious program. Eisenstadt is as interested in the politics of the program as she is in its substance, and so we learn a great deal about why government ministers came to care about early childhood and why they became such loyal supporters of Sure Start.”

For more information, or to order this book, please visit http://www.press.uchicago.edu